INSTRUMENTS The line-up

Three software instruments. Two clear series.

Substance and MADRE-8 form the foundation series: one direct voice in mono and polyphonic form. Octet takes a different route through its oscillators and state-variable filter. Get the instruments through Bitsnacks Vending Machine.

Instrument panelSubstance

Available

Substance

An original monophonic bass and lead software instrument.

Substance began as the direct partner to a drum machine. Two oscillators meet a sub-oscillator and noise in the saturating mixer. A 4-pole transistor ladder follows, with 2 slopes across low-pass, band-pass and high-pass shapes. Resonance compensation retains more bass fundamental at low and middle cutoff positions.

Musical role: Deep basses and driven sequences. It also covers percussive plucks or monophonic leads.
What makes it distinct: The mixer bias supplies even harmonics. Pole mixing gives the ladder 6 filter responses; a separate output stage adds density.
How it plays: Its 8-note memory uses last-note priority and legato fallback. Glide runs at a constant rate. Accent / velocity / aftertouch reach the voice.

Factory sounds

10 starting points: Burgs · Roadtrain · Bitumen · Goanna · The Horses · Snag · Northerly · Drive-Thru · Hume · Currawong.

Burgs · bassline

Goanna · resonant line

Drive-Thru · lead line

Open the Substance user guide See the behaviour behind Substance

Instrument panelMADRE-8

Available

MADRE-8

An eight-voice software instrument that expands Substance.

MADRE-8 makes the Substance architecture polyphonic. Each of its 8 voices carries the familiar 2-oscillator path, sub/noise sources and ladder character. Deterministic drift moves those voices; allocation assigns the notes, and stereo spread places the result.

Design intent: Warm pads and large chords through the direct Substance workflow. Unison gives a single note the complete voice pool.
Voice design: Eight voices, each with 2 oscillators. Its ladder drive and deterministic drift supply the common character; stereo spread opens it.
Performance: Poly / mono / legato / unison modes are active. Aftertouch and glide are active too. Voice spread is configurable, and the tempo-following arpeggiator runs in the current build.

Factory sounds

8 starting points: Amber Poly · Velvet Foundry · Copper Fanfare · Soft Voltage · Glass Hammer · Red Satellite · Low Meridian · Slow Current.

Fixed-seed renders of the same original C - Am - Dm - G - C performance at 96 BPM, peak-normalized to -3 dBFS.

Copper Fanfare · chord progression

Velvet Foundry · chord progression

Instrument panelOctet

Available

Octet

An eight-voice analogue software synthesizer.

Eight complete voice circuits are the point. Octet is modelled on the Oberheim SEM voice card. Every voice contains 2 oscillators and a 2-pole OTA state-variable filter. Two resistor-capacitor envelopes sit beside an LFO with sample-and-hold. The polyphonic engine handles allocation / stealing / unison / glide.

Musical role: Vocal filter sweeps and hollow leads. It opens into glassy pads, hard-sync motion or wide pulse movement.
What makes it distinct: A complete circuit serves each voice. Filter mode travels continuously through low-pass / notch / high-pass; band-pass has its own selection, and resonance acts on the band around cutoff.
What polyphony adds: Each voice receives stable component variation from the patch seed. Bounded drift moves it over time. Allocation and stealing remain repeatable on recall.

Factory sounds

10 starting points: Hearth Brass · Glass Current · Night Choir · Copper Keys · Hollow Reed · Velvet Pulse · Split Horizon · Northbound Sync · Low Lantern · Static Bloom.

Fixed-seed renders of the same original C - Am - Dm - G - C performance at 96 BPM. Both use 30% sustain, 0.40-second release and a 0.86-second note gate, then are peak-normalized to -3 dBFS.

Night Choir · chord progression

Glass Current · chord progression

Explore Octet See the proof

01 Two series

Different circuits. One family.

The foundation series keeps a direct oscillator-to-filter workflow. The specialist series changes that architecture when the musical role calls for it.